Five days on, PIA operations resume partially

Ten flights take off from Islamabad as protesters vow to continue strike


Pilgrims disembark from a PIA plane at Islamabad airport. PHOTO: ONLINE

KARACHI: Flight operations of Pakistan Inter­national Airlines (PIA) partially resumed from Islamabad on Sunday as a crippling strike by its staff against the planned privatisation of the national flag carrier continued across the country for the fifth day running.

With no headway in sight, PIA’s protesting employees announced another rally in Karachi for Monday. The killing of two PIA staffers at a similar rally last Tuesday has exacerbated tensions between the government and the protesters, leading to a complete shutdown of flight operations.

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After a five-day hiatus, over a dozen domestic and international flights took off on Sunday from Lahore, Islamabad and Gilgit. An ATR carrying full load was operated on the Islamabad-Gilgit-Islamabad route.

Ten flights took off from Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport – mainly to bring back Pakistanis stranded in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, after performing Umrah.

Two flights brought over 700 pilgrims from Jeddah to Islamabad while another flight took some pilgrims from Islamabad to Lahore. Another flight had left for Jeddah when this report was written. The other flights out of Islamabad were to Gilgit, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Lahore.

The Joint Action Committee of PIA Employees (JACPIAE), which has been heading the countrywide protests, said the resumption of flight operations violated the civil aviation rules and vowed to continue demonstrations until the government fulfilled its demands.

PIA spokesperson Daniyal Gilani said the management had made arrangements to resume PIA flights, particularly to bring back pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia.

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He added the management had urged all workers to report back for duty “for the sake of PIA’s prestige and for facilitation of passengers”.

However, JAC Chairman Sohail Baloch alleged the government had ‘forcibly’ resumed the flight operations by threatening the pilots and engineers through the local police.

At a news conference at the PIA headquarters in Karachi, he feared an air disaster could happen if the government continued flight operations in violation of civil aviation rules.

Baloch also announced the protesting employees would stage a rally from the PIA Head Office to Jinnah Terminal on Monday in solidarity with the missing JAC members. Four union leaders have been missing since Wednesday, a day after two people were killed by ‘mysterious gunshots’ during Tuesday’s protest.

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Baloch promised the protest rally would be cancelled if the missing persons returned home. “The hard-working employees of the airline are ready to sacrifice their jobs for the betterment of the national carrier,” he added.

He added the protesting employees would not back down from their four demands presented to the government. “We are not begging for negotiations but the government should think about the poor passengers.”

Together with other union leaders, Baloch urged the public to join their struggle, claiming the government would sell out half of the state institutions if the people did not join them. “The privatisation of the national airline will be the loss of the entire nation,” he added.

Murder investigation

Investigators, meanwhile, visited the crime scene of Tuesday’s deadly clash between the PIA staff and law enforcers to collect evidence – five days after two protesters were killed by ‘mysterious gunshots’.

“We visited the crime scene today to collect evidence but could not find any crucial leads,” investigations SP Malik Altaf told The Express Tribune. “We are also trying to find footage from the media or the public to help us.”

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He said police would record statements of nine witnesses whose names were forwarded by the JAC. The investigators will also question the people injured at the protest as well as workers at the nearby petrol pumps and restaurants.

MQM backs protesters

In the afternoon, an MQM delegation, led by Dr Farooq Sattar, visited the PIA head office to express solidarity with protesters. “PIA does not belong to one family of the country but to the people of Pakistan,” the MQM lawmaker said while addressing the protesting employees.

“This is not an issue of having just 38 aircraft but the jobs of 14,000 employees associated with the airline,” he said. “We cannot compromise on these jobs over the personal whims of the rulers.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8th,  2016.

 

COMMENTS (4)

Abdul Aleem | 8 years ago | Reply These employees are the parasites and want to maintain status quo so that they can keep on plundering PIA. Government should deal with them with iron hand
abc | 8 years ago | Reply All Pakistanis must opt for other carriers as we wont take more humiliating attitude of PIA staff. They have gone into self destruction mode and they must be properly scrutinized and hired in a proper manner
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